Chapter Four
THE NEXT DAY, DIANA left the house with Laredo and breathed in the rural air. The sky seemed so much higher here than in the city—not that she’d had time to stare at the sky there. A brighter shade of blue, too. A small white cloud scudded by, resembling a cat curled up and sleeping. She could imagine she’d stepped into a world she hadn’t realized existed. Or she’d been asleep like that cat and now woke up. The endless cerulean sky and the sprawling emerald-green hills awed her.
The faint aroma of rich earth underplayed the scent of hay. While it wasn’t warm, the temperature was comfortable, and she was grateful for the sunshine. Spending most of her time indoors and working many night shifts, she didn’t realize how starved she’d been for sunshine.
Or was it human affection she was starved for?
“Let me show you some of our horses,” Laredo said. “If you’d like to go horseback riding later...”
Diana flinched as she stepped from the porch. “Um, I haven’t been close to a horse, either. I’d need a horse that can barely move.”
“I’ll take you to Serenity. She’s a four-year-old American Quarter horse with the calmest, gentlest character. I need to groom a few horses later in the day.”
Diana perked up. “I’ll groom Serenity.” That would work to both Serenity and Diana’s advantage. Serenity for obvious reasons, and Diana to help her bond with the horse, which would surely help her not to get thrown out of the saddle later, right?
Besides, it would mean less work for Laredo and his left hand. Thoughts fired rapidly in her brain. He’d been doing remarkably well so far, but his movements were still uncomfortable sometimes. Heat scorched her at the memory of seeing him without a shirt when she’d changed his shoulder bandage. It had taken all her willpower not to scurry away.
What was happening to her? She’d never had difficulty separating the man from the patient in her mind. She tried to calm her rapid heartbeat at the memory of touching his skin under his watchful gaze as she cleaned his wound. No doubt, her face had been the color of Saylor’s jeans.
How unprofessional.
Argh. She’d been a nurse for over a decade and never had this issue, though if one stretched all the bandages she’d changed, they could probably be wrapped around the earth. Twice.
On the bright side, there had been no sign of infection, and Laredo’s vital signs were stable. Diana’s pulse was anything but.
His eyes softened. “Thanks for offering to groom Serenity. That’s sweet of you.”
Starved for praise, Diana beamed at him, though she didn’t feel she deserved the praise. “I’m happy to help.” Offering to help was the only way she knew to make people pay attention to her.
He brought a bay horse into the fenced-in area. A feeding part? A paddock or arena maybe? Didn’t they call it an arena in those fancy horse shows she watched?
He led two more horses into the arena, then brought brushes. He handed her one of the latter, and she took it, careful not to touch his hand this time. He affected her too much as it was. “This looks like a brush, but it’s called a curry comb.”
His gaze lingered on her as he spoke, and her temperature kicked up a notch. Oh boy. Then she made the mistake of looking into his baby blues and got lost there. The surprising tenderness in his eyes caused tenderness to stir inside her.
She needed a distraction—and fast. “Your mom is awesome.” Especially compared with Diana’s former mother-in-law, but no need to add that part. “Please thank her for welcoming me.”
His face lit up. “She is, and I will. She’s always supportive of us. But raising so many roughhousing boys couldn’t have been easy.” He showed her how to move the curry comb along the horse’s coat, cleaning it from dirt, straw, and sweat.
He didn’t mention his father. What had happened to his dad?
She repeated Laredo’s movement with Serenity, watching for any signs of distress he’d mentioned. But the horse stood calmly and didn’t even neigh. “Thank you, darling,” Diana whispered to Serenity. “Aren’t you gorgeous? You and I ought to get along just fine.”
He turned back. “Did you say something?”
“Um, just talking to the horse.” Warm tingles prickled her as her hand stilled. “Is that weird?”
“Not at all. I talk to horses all the time.” One side of his lips curved up.
That lopsided smile did strange things to her pulse. She looked away and forced her attention back to the horse and brushing.
With busy but demanding parents, she’d learned to be independent and take care of things from a young age. But it hadn’t been enough to earn her parents’ approval. “I wish my parents were more like your mom,” she blurted out.
“They weren’t supportive?”
She chose her words with care as she brushed aside Serenity’s russet mane so she could work on the horse’s graceful neck. “They wanted the best for me. Dad thought I was wasting my potential and ruining his legacy by not becoming a doctor. I got into medical school. But something always happened. First, I didn’t want to leave my patients and coworkers, and we were already short-staffed at the hospital. But studying at medical school and working twelve-hour shifts was too much. Then my best friend got into a ski accident. I needed to help her recover.”
Pat could be reckless sometimes—okay, a lot of times—and had gone on a dangerous Colorado slope on a dare. It hadn’t ended well. Diana shuddered at the memory, and Serenity shifted away, her tail swishing. Diana took a deep breath to calm her nerves so she wouldn’t unnerve Serenity, as well.
When Pat had started taking an interest in skydiving, Diana had spent a lot of time talking her friend out of it. Had Pat gone on that adventure now and kept it from Diana so she wouldn’t argue about it?
“I’m sorry,” Laredo said.
His compassionate tones soothed, and she resumed currying the docile mare. “Pat recovered, mostly on sheer determination. It took her a year. Once she fully recovered, she’d decided snowboarding would suit her better. Cue another accident. Then I got married, and I wanted to create a beautiful home for us first.” She sighed. “Then Adam died, and I stayed busy working. Or maybe I just wasn’t brave enough to try med school.”
Done with brushing Serenity’s near side, as Laredo had called it, Diana approached the mare’s right side with caution, mindful of the blind spots. If Diana and Pat lived in prehistoric times, Diana would be the type of person to check the cave five times for a saber-toothed tiger before entering. Pat would just rush in and then greet the tiger.
“You had to deal with a lot. And we should follow our dreams, not the ones our parents have for us.” A slight edge sharpened his voice, but it softened fast. “Besides, nursing is such an admirable profession. From my limited perspective, they are the ones who take care of patients day and night and keep things running. I have nothing but respect and admiration for nurses.”
Did that mean he had respect and admiration for her ? A pleasant feeling unfurled inside her. She patted Serenity’s smooth coat as she caught herself smiling.
Diana was here to help Laredo and to find Pat, so why did she feel she was the one being helped?
So far, Diana hadn’t been able to find out anything about her friend, making her insides twist painfully. The police didn’t have any new leads, either. They had pinged her friend’s phone, but it wasn’t in use. Otherwise, she wasn’t too sure they were trying much, considering Pat’s history of disappearing and her mother’s total lack of concern.
Diana tried to pray for Pat, but since her family had always been too busy for God, Diana hadn’t acquired enough depth or knowledge to believe her prayers would be answered. While faith in Laredo’s family seemed as deep as the ocean, hers felt as shallow as a puddle. And that was another reason she shouldn’t be attracted to him.
It all had to be about Pat. Not these confusing unexpected emotions she felt for Laredo.
Diana moved her fingers along the smooth russet coat more to calm herself than the horse. “I spoke with your mom and all your brothers at the ranch, but none of them know what happened to Pat.” Or they claimed they didn’t, but Diana kept that bitter thought to herself. The thought was so unsettling. She had to be impartial for her friend’s sake, but just being near Laredo clouded her judgment. “Do you know who else I can ask?”
They’d already reported it to the police. After settling in yesterday, they’d made Missing Persons posters and plastered them around town and on local social media pages.
Weren’t the first twenty-four hours after a disappearance crucial? They’d passed that mark already. A chill pooled in the pit of her stomach. She could only hope Pat was all right and had taken up with a new object of her affection and forgotten the world around her. It had happened before. After a week of absence, she’d shown up no longer in love and with a thousand excuses on her lips.
There’d been no phone reception in the Himalayas where she went with some jaw-dropping mountain climber—Diana hadn’t figured out whether the mountain or the guy or all of the above had been jaw-dropping. Pat had wanted to apologize in person. The second time, it had been six days in the jungles of South America with a handsome Argentinian. Who had no doubt seemed more handsome each day considering it had been just Pat, the guy, and the monkeys. Then once she left South America, her attraction to the Argentinian had left as well and moved on to a new guy.
But unless she was with penguins and some extremely dedicated and attractive polar-world researcher in the South Pole right now, she should’ve called. Even then, she should’ve called or found a way to get in contact.
“Saylor helps manage the ranch office when she’s free from her studies.” Laredo’s voice brought Diana back from the South Pole. “We could talk to her about Pat, ask her to question our cowhands, see if they noticed something unusual about Pat or the time she was here. In addition to her private investigator gigs, Marina runs her mother’s restaurant, which is one of the most popular eateries in town, if not the most popular. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind talking to her patrons and waitstaff. She worked as an attorney for years, so she knows how to question witnesses to elicit the information.”
“Are you sure they wouldn’t mind?” Done with grooming, Diana gathered up the brushes and approached Laredo.
Despite her profession requiring her to be around people, in her personal life she wasn’t comfortable talking to people she didn’t know. It would take a huge load off her shoulders if she didn’t have to talk to their entire town and ranch inhabitants herself. Her chest expanded already as if it were easier to breathe.
“I’m positive. We can also talk to the townspeople, the way you started already. And one of my brothers is an experienced private investigator. He lives in Charleston, not on the ranch, so you haven’t met him yet. Barrett is in France on an investigation right now. But I can ask him if he could look into your friend’s disappearance once he’s done, if you’d like.”
“That would be awesome.” She handed the brushes back. She was accustomed to being the one helping and taking care of others, not the one being helped. What a fantastic feeling when someone cared enough to step up. Warmth soothed her.
Was he helping her because he liked her? The emotion intensified. The answer was so important that it scared her. She couldn’t risk getting hurt again. Or was it out of the goodness of his heart? Or both? Or... She went cold. Because he or his brothers had something to do with Pat’s disappearance and he wanted to control the narrative? Send her on a false trail?
One more reason not to fall for him, despite her growing attraction. She tore her gaze away from him because just the look in his blue eyes made her lungs’ movement stutter.